Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly...   ~Colossians 3:16 My husband has a greenhouse that is attached to the side of our house.  Inside  the greenhouse doors are plants a plenty.  It's warm and humid inside and you can find everything from cucumbers to limes to (even) a pomegranate growing inside  the greenhouse.  The climate, the daily watering, and the light are conducive and encouraging for growth and potential.  But I noticed today that there was a tendril, a vine, a determined strand of some plant that had grown through the doorhinge  and into our garage.  This plant had left the ideal atmosphere of the greenhouse and appeared to be thriving out in the wild and not-perfect-conditions of our garage.   It's dark in our garage much of the day, because the door is shut when we are at work and school, and so there is technically and presumably not enough light for this plant to grow and thrive...and yet, it does. The...

On a recent college campus tour, we found ourselves in the locker room of one of their sports teams. One of my favorite takeaways from that campus visit was a mirror in that locker room, framed in colored sticky notes with positive mantras written on them by the teammates. Positive thoughts, motivating motto's, and encouraging ideas were handwritten in all different penmanship, and on all different colored sticky notes.  I read each one, and they were uplifting for sure, with phrases such as "Never quit!", and "Pain is temporary, but pride is forever" stuck neatly around the mirror's edge. I was hoping for at least one posting that might include a Bible verse, and as I read my second-to-last note: there it was .   One note out of thirty-some notes breathed a word of encouragement from God's Word , and I praised the Lord for that (one) player's boldness and her faith. A slacker will not plow in season, so at harvest he looks but finds nothing.  ~Prove...

I wasn't seeing eye-to-eye with one of our kids the other day. In truth, his words (and attitude) had exasperated me and I did not start an argument, but I wanted to! I wasn't exactly mad...but frustrated, and I began to have an excellent conversation with myself (in my head), concerning the many ways that I was right, and he was wrong. This (self-exalting) mind-speak led to some ideas of how I might proceed with him concerning this matter, and more specifically, what I should do to show him how I felt about it. Freeze. Has anyone else ever been in a similar ( What do they think they are doing? ) situation? ...Where we want to make a point , and more specifically, we want to make our point. Words like "discipline", "consequence" and even "justice" bumped around my frustrated heart as justification for how to handle how I might proceed. But then the Lord pressed His next-steps into my head and heart, and I will give you a hint: it was not at ...

Are we good at math?  Statistics?  Probability?  Reasoning? Here's today's question: What is the probability, and what are the odds that a tiny nation (about) the size of New Jersey...(for example, The United States is 450 times larger than New Jersey, and Russia is about 779 times larger than New Jersey)... ...What is the probability that a nation, (about) the size of New Jersey will become like  a cup (drink)  that sends all the surrounding peoples reeling ? Israel is about the size of New Jersey, and yet... Do we have any stats on a nation about the size of New Jersey becoming like  an immovable rock for all the nations.  On that day, when all the nations of the earth are gathered against her, I will make Jerusalem an immovable rock for all the nations.   All who try to move it will injure themselves.  ~Zechariah 12:3 What are the odds (have we ever heard of such a thing) that  every (enemy)  horse (against the country the ...